#listen i want to say that hendrix's endings are cliche

[sharry-arry-odd]

Ever wonder what happens to those final girls? After all their plans go belly up and all their weapons fail? After their defenses crumble and they've been shot in the head? After they've trusted the wrong people, made the wrong choices, and opened themselves up at the worst possible moments? After their lives are ruined and they're left at thirty-eight years old with nothing in the bank, no kids, no lover, and nothing to their name but a couple of ghosts and a handful of broken-down friends? I know what happens to those girls. They turn into women. And they live.

The Final Girl Support Group, by Grady Hendrix

[tangledstarlight]

For the prompts thing...

You’re my ex but I think I still have feelings for you.

Juke, preferably.

not entirely sure what this is. it went on a very weird journey. don't hate it. i know you probably wanted something either angstier or funnier but this is very...middle ground? idk man it's 2:40am. enjoy! thank you for sending one!😊💜

24. you’re my ex but i think i still have feelings for you

50 cliche tropes and prompts!

Julie remembers every little detail about the day they broke up.

She remembers the way her coffee had tasted in the morning, how she’d struggled to make her hair look semi-presentable for school, how the radio had played a new Taylor Swift song, how they’d all laughed at lunch like everything was normal. She remembers knowing it was coming but not being able to do anything to stop it.

Her and Luke broke up a week before High School graduation at 4:37pm on a Thursday that felt just like any other.

It was because she’d gotten into her top college choices, Luke said. It was because he and the boys were going to tour that summer, she said. It was because they were 17 and everyone said a high school romance would never last that kind of distance or difference in lifestyles.

The last time she saw him had been at Carrie’s graduation party. A stolen moment in a locked bedroom that had left them both a little breathless and both a little teary eyed and promise to never settle for less than their worth. Flynn doesn’t comment on her rumpled clothes and she sees the way the boys don’t ask about the wet patch on his shirt over his heart where they all know reaches her eye line.

They steal one last look at each other as the night ends and they get into different cars to go home. One last smile, one last wave, two last words whispered across a drive, “Bye Jules.”

Then Julie locks away the part of her heart that belongs to Luke Patterson and moves on.

//

College is different then she expected it to be. Less like the films she’d seen growing up and more like, well, reality she supposes. Her roommate is friendly and they get along fine. There’s no stolen food or ruined clothes or spontaneous parties in their room. It’s nice, it’s normal, it’s fine.

There’s parties on campus and off that never get as wild as she expects them to. And Julie starts to wonder if maybe she’s doing college wrong. If she’s maybe not experiencing all the wild and terrifying things that other people are. There’s no one night stands or running from police or walking up with traffic cones in her room.

She tries to explain it to Flynn. How she’s worried she’s doing college wrong. That she and Luke broke up because they were supposed to experience life and he didn’t want to hold her back and how he had never asked her if she even wanted to go on tour with them.

There’s silence on both ends of the phone after she confesses that, before Flynn slowly asks if she had wanted to go with the boys.

And Julie doesn’t know. She doesn’t have an answer, and even if she did, what did it matter now?

//

Her first boyfriend after Luke is a guy named Henry.

He’s soft spoken and doing some sort of business degree and knows how to cook fancy foods and goes to bed at 11pm on a weekday and has no real opinions on who is a better guitarist –– Eric Calpton or Jimi Hendrixs –– and he’s basically the complete opposite to Luke.

And Julie likes him. She likes that he’s kind and polite and that he listens to what she has to say and that he’s predictable.

Which is also what she dislikes.

There’s no give or take or pushing to be better. She can always guess exactly what Henry is going to say or where he’ll want to eat or what he’ll want to do on the weekend. And it’s not because she knows him oh so well. It’s just that he’s predictable. He’s mundane.

And Julie hates that because of Luke she knows not to settle for ordinary.

//

She graduates college and moves in with Flynn and for the first time in her life, Julie realises she doesn’t know what to do next. Doesn’t have a plan. It’s terrifying the same way it’s exhilarating.

Creating music has always been the goal, now she just has to figure out how she’s going to do it. What kind of artist she wants to be. And she remembers –– or really it’s not remembering, because it’s always there in the back of her mind –– what Luke had once said. How it’s not about the money, it’s about making a connection with someone. With everyone.

And Julie knows he’s doing that.

Knows that the band put out an ep, that they have a small following that grows a little more every day. Knows that Luke hasn’t sacrificed his goals for money.

She’s happy for him. For them. She just tries not to think about it too much.

//

Julie sees him for the first time in six years at a supermarket of all places.

In the cereal aisle.

He’s still wearing his stupid band tee’s that he’s cut the arms off, and still wearing beanies just to contradict himself, and still squinting at labels because he refuses to get his eyes tested.

Julie knows, as she stands with her basket at one end, that she can turn around right now. That he’ll never have known she was there. That she can carry on with her life without him in it.

“Need me to read that for you?” she finds herself asking as she stops next to his side, the distance between them feeling like miles rather than the handful of inches it really is.

For a moment, Luke doesn’t say anything. Just looks at her, eyes tracing over her face, her body, probably taking in all the ways she’s changed. Like what she’s doing to him. Taking in the way his shoulders are broader, biceps more defined, how there’s a stubble dusting his cheeks and his hair looks a little longer. How he seems to hold himself differently, more confidently.

And then one of his hands rubs at the back of his neck, and a sheepish smile pulls at his lips as he holds the box out to her, “Yeah, please.” He finally says, and it’s the first time she’s heard him speak in six years and his voice is a little deeper, a little raspier like he’s been shouting. But it’s still him. She’d recognise his voice anywhere.

Swallowing, Julie accepts the box and turns it around, eyes scanning the tiny letters quickly and, before she can start reading, Luke is saying something.

Two little words.

“Hi Jules.”

Julie feels something inside her click. Something unlock as a smile breaks out across her face.

“Hi Luke.”

[x--daughters-of-darkness--x]

TAYLOR MOMSEN Shares Story Behind SOUNDGARDEN Collaboration "Only Love Can Save Me Now"

Taylor Momsen has been through the wringer. The Pretty Reckless frontwoman and former Gossip Girl star just released her most viscerally personal record yet. Death By Rock and Roll might be stacked with hard rock songs and bangers. But it also comes from a place of deep pain, healing and grief.

“It was a very scary time for me” said Momsen in a recent interview with Metal Injection, “I was content to fade away into nothing.”

It started, ironically, with one of the best moments in Momsen’s life. The Pretty Reckless got the call that they booked to be the opening band on Soundgarden’s 2017 North American tour. Describing Soundgarden as “one of my desert island bands”, Momsen says the experience was “absolutely amazing…surreal. They always say don’t meet your idols, but then they exceeded my expectations in every way.” But things ended in tragedy after Chris Cornell’s suicide in Detroit on the last day of the tour. “It was the highest of highs to lowest of lows in the snap of a finger. It was such a shock.”

There was another year-long tour for The Pretty Reckless already booked. But Momsen soon realized this was not the right time. “I quickly came to the conclusion that I was not in a great place to be in public," she says, "I wasn’t handling it well. Just getting on stage and feigning my way through this entertaining show, it didn’t feel fair to the fans. It meant that I needed to take a step back, go home and get my feet back on the ground.”

The Pretty Reckless cancelled the rest of their shows and, after several months, began to work on their new record. But then, tragedy struck again. Kato Khandwala, the band’s producer since their debut, died in a motorcycle accident at the age of 47.

“That was the nail in the coffin," says Momsen, "I went downhill, into this dark hole of depression and substance abuse and everything that comes along with grief and loss and trauma…I went through a period when I felt that couldn’t listen to music. Anything. It all brought back these memories that I wasn’t ready to handle. And I stayed in that dark space where I was content with fading into nothing. I just didn’t see a future. Not in music. Not in life."

She continued "As cliche as it may sound, it was music that brought a light back in my eye…I (asked) myself ‘where did this start for you?’ The simple answer was The Beatles. So I listened to all The Beatles records back to front. Then I got into Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Cream, Neil Young, Oasis. It was at this point I realized I could listen to Soundgarden and have it bring me joy again. That was a big turning point. And naturally, the next step in that process was to pick up a guitar. After that, this record just kind of poured out of me whether I wanted it to or not. I didn’t try to write this album. This album wrote itself.”

In the middle of all this, Taylor Momsen sang at the “I Am The Highway” tribute concert, fronting Soundgarden for three songs. It was originally only one, but at the last moment Momsen stepped up to sing “Drawing Flies” and “Rusty Cage”. “There was no rehearsal,” she says, laughing, “We had jsut finished soundcheck. Then someone ran out and tapped on the car as we were leaving. He said “You’re singing ‘Rusty Cage’ tonight”. It’s very different knowing a song inside and out on record and actually singing it.”

Death By Rock n’ Roll was released this February, two years after Kato’s death and nearly four-and-a-half after Chris Cornell's.  Soundgarden members Kim Thayil and Matt Cameron leant their talents to the song “Only Love Can Save Me Now” at Seattle’s legendary London Bridge Studios. This meant Taylor was writing side by side  with her heroes in the same studio where grunge classics Louder Than Love, Dirt and Ten were recorded. The sessions were “the highlight of my musical life” for Momsen. She admits that “Only Love Can Save Me Now” is her favorite track off the new album, and that she felt it was a “cathartic healing moment.” that "helped close the circle of grief."

Soundgarden’s members give the track their all. Kim Thayil’s snarly squelching sound remains recognizable and unique. Matt Cameron (who has also been behind Pearl Jam's kit since 1998) is there to remind us why he’s one of the most respected drummers in the game. Momsen's songwriting and youthful energy bring the song to life. "The first time we heard it come out of the speakers, Kim's guitar and that first snare hit Matt does, it was unbelievable" says Momsen. This is no one-off.  It is a stunning tribute from one of Cornell’s biggest fans and his most famous collaborators.

[x--daughters-of-darkness--x]

The Pretty Reckless’ Taylor Momsen Lives for ‘Death by Rock and Roll’

“The 27 Club” is a depressing cultural phenomenon — it’s the age musical luminaries Amy Winehouse, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, Mia Zapata of the Gits, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix died.

The Pretty Reckless singer Taylor Momsen is now is 27 but was 25 when she wrote a reckoning in the semi-autobiographical “25.” The song appears on Death By Rock and Roll, the band’s fourth record. The LP is a stunner; a dozen stellar songs that are at once reverential, referential and intensely personal.

In the past four years, Momsen lost two hugely important people in her life. In 2017, Chris Cornell died by suicide, and not long after, her musical mentor and best friend Kato Khandwala died in a motorcycle crash. Understandably, Momsen was devastated. Thanks in no small part to the catharsis of music, the age of 27 seems to be a renewal, as she exorcises her pain in Death By Rock and Roll. The Pretty Reckless’ best album to date, the passion and pain are palpable in both music and lyrics. The plaintive “Got So High” could be an alt-rock chart-topper, in wonderful contrast to the raw rallying cry and aggressive gutter-rock feel of the title track. She moves easily from the quirky cinematic moment of “Broomsticks” into the fiery, feminist coven-call that is “Witches Burn.”

Speaking from her pandemic hideout in Maine, Momsen isn’t on the other side of the grieving process.

“I’d be a liar to say that I’m, you know, over things,” she tells SPIN. “I’m still in the process of healing, but the making of this record really was just a huge step forward. I was in a very, very dark space there for a while, and if it wasn’t for the making of this record, I don’t know if I would be here right now.”

She wallowed, but ultimately her instinct for self-preservation kicked in. As did a worldwide pandemic. Masking up is nothing new for Momsen, who calls herself “a super hypochondriac” who hasn’t left her house since March.

“Even before COVID, I was strict. It probably stems from being a singer and not wanting to get sick on tour, because you never fully recover. So [I always flew wearing] masks,” Momsen says.

Though she’s healthy, and it’s probably not an exaggeration to say that, emotionally, Momsen was saved by rock and roll. “I keep just sticking to the word rebirth,” she says. “I know it sounds cliché, but it really does feel like that for the band.”

While the songs are truthful, sometimes sad, always powerful, they’re never a pity party. “I keep trying to want to put a positive spin on it because I don’t want it to be this representation of this very morbid thing,” Momsen says. The concept behind Death By Rock & Roll is a positive rallying crying, something a band might shout together before going on stage. “It’s an ethic that we live our life by; go out your own way, rock and roll till I die,” she continues. “Don’t let anyone tell me differently.”

The phrase “death by rock and roll” was coined as the band’s de facto motto by Khandwala, which made it an appropriate choice for the album title. The band’s friend, producer and touchstone, Khandwala died in 2018 at the age of 47. He was with The Pretty Reckless from 2010’s Light Me Up to 2014’s Going To Hell and 2016’s Who You Selling For.

Khandwala’s memory bookends the album: A recording of his actual footsteps on a wooden floor begins the record, and the final song is the poignant tribute “Harley Darling,” a stellar ballad that could be a hit on Americana/country radio. If the only way around something is through it, Momsen dove in headfirst, putting all her angst, love, sadness and power into the songs.

“The record delves into a lot of darkness and a lot of sadness. There was no way around that as a writer. And as a person. It just became so a part of who I was that I couldn’t avoid it. But I think by writing it and getting it out, that was a huge part of the healing process.”

Wanting to use music to process and express her emotions, she called Khandwala, who had produced every The Pretty Reckless album, to talk about recording.

But then came the call that Khandwala had died.

“That was the nail in the coffin for me. I threw my hands up in the air and kind of went ‘Yeah, I give up.’ I went down a very dark rabbit hole of depression and substance abuse and everything that comes with that.” she confesses. Momsen was so down that she couldn’t even listen to music. Eventually, listening to her favorite artists helped her. “I started with the Beatles, listening to every detail, the whole Anthology, and just going through what made me fall in love with music when I was young.”

The band – drummer Jamie Perkins, guitarist Ben Phillips and bassist Mark Damon – met Momsen through Khandwala and were all equally devastated, processing losses in their own ways. They were on tour with Soundgarden in 2017, which was a thrill but ended in tragedy when Cornell died.

“As an artist [being asked to open the tour] was the highest compliment that you could possibly get,” she says. “If you know anything about me, I mean Soundgarden is just the epitome [when it comes to rock bands]. I was there that last night in Detroit,” she remembers. “I talked to him at night I gave him a hug and said goodbye. When I wake up to that news the next morning … It just went from the most elating experience to the one of the most devastating. And Kato was at all those shows.”

Cornell’s death shook Momsen and the band profoundly. She says it “took me down to a place where I wasn’t useful in the middle of a record cycle.” The Pretty Reckless were supposed to be on the road for another year, but Momsen wasn’t up to performing as she dealt with her grief. “I couldn’t grieve and continue to get on stage every night and pretend, put on this big rock show like everything was okay. I left the tour,” she says.

With time, she was able to listen to Soundgarden’s music, and eventually, she picked up a guitar. Death by Rock & Roll was a record that was easy in the worst way possible.

“I didn’t have to try to write it. It was more just a necessity that I didn’t even know I needed. It just kind of poured out of me,” Momsen says of the writing process. “There were a lot of tears during the recording. We put everything we had into this album, physically, emotionally. There are good days, bad days, obviously. I think the full spectrum of emotions was spanned on making this, from anger to tears of happiness to tears of sadness.” Some days were too difficult for Momsen even to attempt vocals, too heartbroken from the past few years.

That said, Momsen, in conversation, along with the record itself, aren’t outwardly mournful. Her voice has laughter and life. “I’m ecstatic for people to hear the album and to share it because I’m really proud of it. I know it sounds cliche, but it really does feel like the first album, like we had to start from scratch again, and we didn’t know how that was going to go.”

Still, there are songs where Momsen chooses not to divulge the true inspiration to inquisitive journalists. “I think it’s unfair to the listener to detail song lyrics in a personal manner. It takes away what it means to [the listener].” She offers up an example to clarify: “I’m a huge Pink Floyd fan. (She references “The Great Gig in the Sky” in the song “Rock and Roll Heaven.”) I’ve watched every documentary ever made about Pink Floyd. In one, Roger Waters is talking about ‘Shine on You Crazy Diamond,’ going into depth about what the song was about to him, about Syd Barrett.”

Momsen was shocked to learn the song’s true story. “It was so not how I had taken that song my entire life! I’m glad that I know the story now. But if I had known before I listened to it, I think that it would have changed my perspective of the song. It wouldn’t have had the same impact that it had on me and my personal life. That’s why I don’t like to do that.”

Death by Rock and Roll reaffirms The Pretty Reckless’ love of rock and roll, along with the people who made them who they are, musically and as individuals. “I think because we went through so much trauma, and so much loss, that this record, in one way, feels so much like a gift. We’re given the gift of rebirth; I mean, how many artists can say that? As artists, you struggle to find inspiration always. In this case, inspiration was just thrust upon me.”

With a record that marks such a powerful turning point for The Pretty Reckless, talking about Khandwala and Cornell will be inevitable and ongoing. “This record starts and ends with my love letter to Kato. So there’s no getting around talking about that,” Momsen concedes. “But it’s so much more than that. I think it’s reflecting on the cycle of life. You come into this world with nothing but your soul, and you leave it with nothing but your soul.”